The Cayman Islands is growing faster than Bermuda and its economy is on track to catch up, according to the most recent figures released by the World Bank.

For years, according to the bank’s statistics, Cayman’s gross domestic product — a measure of the size and health of a country’s economy over a period of time — has lagged far behind. But recently, the difference has narrowed, as seen in figures to 2022.

Peter Everson, a local businessman who has had working links to the Cayman Islands since the early 1980s, said he was not surprised that the gap was closing.

“Yes, this is expected,” Mr Everson said. “Their population has been growing and continues to do so. They were underpopulated in 1982 when I first visited, 17,000 people with a low standard of living in an area four or five times the size of Bermuda.

“Around 2003, they were catching up and then they got whacked by Hurricane Ivan and their population shrank as they could not import food.”

He said the only dock was unusable, “so the Government asked people to leave and go live elsewhere”.

Mr Everson added that in 2009 they had a domestic budget crisis when the Governor would not sign off on the annual budget because it called for borrowing $300 million.

“After that, they started reforms and they now have a plan to grow the population to 100,000 and they are well on their way. At that point, they will have an economy around 40 per cent larger than Bermuda.”

He said that was “pretty remarkable for a country with almost no resources except land”.

Mr Everson said the situation was “really a mirror for all of us in Bermuda”.

He added: ”We can have a great and prosperous future catering to everyone, but only if we take back control from the current groups of politicians and elect people with the long-term interest of Bermuda at their heart.“